“Are you afraid of being sick?”, the doctor asked. I know I am not the first one to be judged for consulting a doctor to cure “body ache”. When the doctors themselves don’t shy away from snubbing and judging the women who are suffering from fibromyalgia, just because they don’t believe in the condition, what would poor patients do? Trust me he is one of the leading neurologists in Kochi. So I was left wondering “Is fibromyalgia real?”. For more than a year I lived in denial because the doctor said so. As the days went by, my pain worsened and I was unable to pinpoint the source of pain as it kept on radiating throughout the body. That’s when my time overlapped with my Holistic Wellness journey. My Yoga, meditation, EFT tapping, reflexology, and all practices worked, and slowly the pain subsided, including severe ENT problems too.
Is fibromyalgia real?
Fibromyalgia is an invisible symptom that doesn’t have symptoms that are evidently visible to others. This is where the real struggle of convincing the healthcare providers, coworkers, and even friends and family comes into the picture. In addition to the pain, the patients would also have sleep issues, mood swings, and memory problems. These are often conveniently ignored by the people around as a normal daily struggle.
The fact that more than half of the healthcare providers including neurologists is a fact that needs to be addressed on a larger scale because the person who is in pain feels neglected. This in turn could affect their emotions and have a psychological impact on them. Eventually, they leave it to themselves as they become exhausted from the travail.
Why the symptoms can be confusing?
Fibromyalgia has a cluster of symptoms that could overlap with other conditions like arthritis. Hence there is no definitive treatment for the condition. Since the symptoms vary, the cure is more or less an experiment. Nonetheless, the World Health Organisation has already recognized it as a disease and hence the doctors who deny hardly make any sense. They should rather update their medical knowledge up to date to consider fibromyalgia real.
I was lucky enough to be introduced to the condition by my ENT specialist. Lest I would have left behind wondering myself that I was being lazy. Further, I went ahead and started my therapy by being my therapist. The first step was to stop asking and start acting by making fibromyalgia real in my psyche. Many of you might have been sailing in the same boat and would be surprised to know that ‘hey, there is someone like me. But don’t worry we all are here for you. DM me on my Instagram page to join my holistic wellness community.
